uTorrent Review | Best and lightweight Bittorrent client μTorrent

This article gives you almost all ideas you need to have to use Utorrent efficiently. Moreover, it teaches you the difference between Seeds and Peers and much more.

There are many torrent clients on the net, but there is no other torrent client as uTorrent. It is safe, portable, easy-to-use, having multitude of features and what not. This article will help you to grasp more on what uTorrent is and how to use uTorrent efficiently.

First of all, what a torrent is –

What is a Torrent

Torrent file is a file, which stores metadata used for BitTorrent clients. It is a very small file. Its size may range from 5 or 10 kilobytes to around 200 to 400 kilobytes. At least, I haven't seen any torrent file with a size of even a MegaByte. It is like a small rope which can be used to pull big loads. You can use a torrent file, and using uTorrent, you may download very big files, files ranging to gigabytes, large sizes.

What are these Torrent Files downloading

These torrent files can be used to download anything, almost anything. However, a vast range of media files, such as music, videos, movies, films, picture, and what not, are available on the net through torrents. However, many of them are pirated products. Also, you may upload your own personal files and host them so as to allow others to download it with ease. Now let us come on to uTorrent.

What is a BitTorrent Client

Those softwares which allow you to download files using a torrent file and an Internet Connection, are called BitTorrent clients. Some of the most popular BitTorrent clients are Transmisison and uTorrent. However, uTorrent is the most popular.

What is uTorrent

uTorrent is a BitTorrent client. It is the most used, most developed, most easy-to-use, most portable, most popular, most downloaded, fastest, BitTorrent client ever seen. It has been developed by BitTorrent Incorporation. It is available for many operating systems. It is available for Windows (all versions), for Linux and also for Mac OX. It has been written in the C++ language. Also, it is available in many languages, namely 52 langugaes. Its latest build is the 2.0.3 Beta (build 20091) and it was launched very recently, on June 13, 2010. Its size is very small, about 300 KiloBytes.

What are Peers in uTorrent

Peers are those computers, which are also downloading a file, though haven't finished it yet. They are misunderstood to be similar as leechers, however they are not. The literal meaning of the word 'peer' is someone of the same class. So peers are given this name because they are compared to their class, that is the downloaders which haven't downloaded the file fully yet.

What are Seeds in uTorrent

Seeds are those computers which have finished downloading a file and now they are seeding it. Seeding means to share the file through the same torrent file and allowing others to use their bandwidths so as to pull the content.

Difference between Peers and Leechers

As I spoke above, peers and leechers are not the same. Those computers who only download a file, and are currently downloading but in future they will turn up as seeds and will allow others to receive the file from their computer as well as called peers. However, leechers are those, who just suck the content and after they finished downloading, they simply fly away and they do not share the file / they do not upload.

What are Trackers in uTorrent

Trackers, aka BitTorrent trackers, are simply servers which assist you to establish a successful connection between the seeders to peers or peers to peers. They track your position on the net and then allow you to share the files.

How to create a torrent file in uTorrent

Did you know that you can even share your own personal files on the net, specifically with whomever you wished to? Here are the steps you need to follow to create a torrent file –

1. Goto File Menu > Create New Torrent or simply press Ctrl + N.2. Select the file which you want to share.3. Add the trackers.4. Add the webseeds.5. Make it private if you wish. Also alter other options.6. Save.

Benefits of using uTorrent

There are several benefits of using uTorrent.

Portability - Because of its small size and still being in the beta mode, it is very portable. Being just of about 300 kB, you can transfer it to your mobile phone even and then you can transfer it to your PC for easy use. It is very portable.

User Friendly Interface - The interface of uTorrent is very user friendly and you can just use with so much ease that you cannot use any other BitTorrent client. You will find it really easy to use and easy to treat up.

Continuous Downloading - Your downloads can be paused and even if you turn off your windows, you can easily download your file from where you stopped. That means that you can resume your downloads even after stopping them.

Scheduler - Did you know that you can actually schedule your downloads? This facility has been given for those who do not have an unlimited usage Internet Connection. To use the scheduler uTorrent you should go to Options > Preferences > Scheduler.

Easy Sharing - You can easily share your files also using Torrent. Suppose you just bought a genuine game DVD. And your brother sitting somewhere in the other corner of the world, wants to have it for free, then you can easily share that with him. All you need to do is to create a torrent file, name it and then send that torrent file to your brother so that he can download the file himself.

Disadvantages of uTorrent

There is a merit and a demerit in every case and thing. Similar is the case with uTorrent as well. You can easily use it, and see its advantages, but knowing the disadvantages is not that easy.

Bandwidth Sucker - If you are using uTorrent, then it is surely going to such your bandwidth and even if you do not want to upload the file, just leech it down to your own PC, you will have to upload it even. However, this is common to all BitTorrent Clients.

Adds to Piracy - 90% of the users on the Internet use this client for downloading pirated content, like movies, music etc. which are copyright but if you use uTorrent, you can just download it for free. And this vitally adds to piracy and it is very tough to stop this. Websites like ThePirateBay cannot be stopped from hosting torrent files which will help one from downloading a pirated file.

Related Articles

In this article, I am going to discuss about best free Torrent software applications available for Windows 7 operating system. What is a torrent? How torrent works and what are the different free torrent software available in the internet is discussed in the article.

Did you know it is illegal to download copyrighted content using Torrent clients and you can go to jail for it in addition to paying fines? Yes, you read it right. In this article we would take a look at what all legal problems you can face if you do illegal downloads and how can copyright holders track you quite easily on Torrent clients.